Last week, I shared some photos that are inspiring my kitchen renovation, which is all part of my slightly ambitious plan to entirely redo my apartment this summer. A lot of people weighed in with their opinions, assuming that I would not listen to them and just go ahead and do what I wanted to do. Not the case! Due to all the warnings about marble countertops, we are going to switch to a quartz countertop instead.
Emma Beryl from Home Polish had brought over the quartz as a choice from the beginning, but I liked the marble and was willing to risk it. After listening to a few of you express your marble regrets, I was reminded of the white couches that we bought for the house three years ago. “They are Sunbrella fabric so they will wipe clean,” I told you all. Turns out, they don’t wipe as clean as I would like and they drive me and Mike a bit mad.
So, thank you for the reminder. Quartz it is.
I have a feeling people are going to have similar opinions about our bathrooms, so I’m both excited and a little scared to share with you our thoughts so far. My goal is to modernize both the guest/girls bathroom and the master bathroom, as well as add some additional storage space.
Currently, our master bathroom has a pedestal sink which is totally impractical. I hang my hair appliances over the towel rack, next to the toilet, which is not only ugly, but seems a little bit dangerous. We have a big tub which nobody has ever actually taken a bath in. Mike and I are both exclusively shower people. Nothing would make me happier than a walk-in shower. Our bathroom is also designed in a what I will call a “tuscan style” which has no relation to anything else in our apartment whatsoever.
Our guest bathroom doesn’t have a medicine cabinet, which is ridiculous when you live in such a small space. We have a small skinny cabinet next to the mirror (see picture below), in which I precariously balance make-up and band aids and Neosporin on top of each other, just waiting for the one compact or nail polish I put back in incorrectly, so that all my toiletries coming tumbling down like a bathroom version of Jenga.
Also, it’s worth noting that I currently have all my stuff in the girls bathroom cabinet, which I assume they will take over eventually. The guest bath also has these hideous handles on the tub that look like it was originally meant for a nursing home.
And the shower heads in both bathrooms are too high, so that I have to stand on my tippy toes to make sure my hair gets properly rinsed. God knows what’s still in Mazzy’s hair, now that she showers and rinses herself.
So, as I was saying. More storage. More modern. Less Tuscan. Less geriatric.
11 photos that are inspiring both bathroom renovations:
1) I am in love with this tile.
Source: Futurist Architecture
2) I like the contrast of white tiled walls with the dark hexagon on the floor.
Source: Apartment Therapy
3) I seem to have a thing for blues and teals.
Source: Sunset
4) I also seem to like brass fixtures.
Source: Crow Decor
5) I love clean clear glass showers.
Source: Studio Matsalla
6) I keep gravitating towards floating sink storage with drawers instead of a cabinet.
Source: One Kin Design
7) I like bringing in a wood element with all the tile.
Source: Novelle Vie Haiti
8) I love the wire-y looking reading lamps used as sconces.
Source: Arch Daily
9) I like black accents and contrast
Source: Inside Out
10) I love how modern and clean this looks
Source: Residence Style
11) Once again, Mazzy had to make sure her favorite bathroom was on my Pinterest board for consideration. Not sure we can pull this look off.
Source: Lushome
Emma decided that we would use the blues, brass fixtures and more fun tile options in the guest bathroom and keep the simple, more modern, sophisticated looking options in the master bathroom. I know everyone loves the shower curtain in the girls bath, but it’s time to let it go. We are going to look into ways to remove the handles on the tub, without the expense and hassle of completely removing the whole tub, and then install a glass door. We’ll use a wallpaper on the portion that isn’t tiled to keep it young and fun.
For the master, we’re going to create a storage unit specifically for hair appliances, with outlets on the inside which I could not be more excited about. We are going to do white tile on the walls, a dark hexagon on the floor and a beautiful glass walk-in shower, which means I will never have to replace a moldy curtain liner again.
Anyone have any words of wisdom from your own bathroom renovation? What should I watch out for?
If you’d like to follow my home decorating journey on Pinterest, you can follow along here!
Depending on what your tub is made out of (ours was cast iron I think) we paid to have it re-glazed and it was so worth it. I imagine they could patch the holes from the handles and then glaze the whole thing. We chose white.
Good luck with the reno!
That first bathroom, with the fish-scale tile, is Emily Henderson’s at her old house. Her blog is beautiful and I would love to see you two hook up irl… she’s a mom of two, also! (your blog and hers are pretty consistent reads over here!)
Ah! I follow her on Instagram! She doesn’t know me but she plugged my book in her stories once. It was a total surprise and I was so excited!
Love the pictures! I don’t have advice I can tell you we have white tiles in our bathroom and I love the look however the previous home owners didn’t take care of it so I need to deep clean and probably re-seal it! I also lean towards teals and blues, I’m going to be painting our upstairs bathroom most likely teal, I enjoy bold colors in bathrooms.
Assuming both of the girls can handle themselves in the tub? We removed our glass doors because I couldn’t reach my little guy and they were a giant PITA to clean. At least I can throw away a moldy shower curtain.. can’t do that with glass doors! The privacy is also nice for when they’re older and one is trying to do her makeup while the other overslept and needs to shower.
But for the master.. love the glass walk-in!
I agree on the glass doors/shower curtain issue. My kiddos bathrooms have always had shower curtains and I buy washable liners and occasionally replace them. Our last 3 homes have had glass showers in the master and they are THE ABSOLUTE WORST to keep clean. My dream is a tiled shower with no glass door whatsoever… someday!
I love these! My family friend who’s a pretty well known designer (KitchenLab) says on fixtures – especially if doing brass – it’s good to mix it up so it doesn’t look like “I just renovated my whole house at the same time” lol. We took her advice and did brass fixtures on the shower head/sink faucet/vanity pulls, but the black metal on the shower trim/mirror/towel hooks/etc. Turned out great, especially in a primarily black and white color scheme.
I also vote drawer vanities! We live in a small space and it’s SUCH an improvement over the pedestal but also I love it much more than our older vanity that’s more focused on a cabinet set up. Plus it’s easy to divide up for the girls. Also a bit of a splurge, but I would imagine fairly easy to do with a concrete subfloor condo: heated tile in the master.
And finally, a wall insert makes everything in the shower look so much cleaner, especially if you’re taking out the curtain and doing glass doors. We did a really pretty decorative tile to make it stand out and get tons of compliments.
Also this is the room to go marble crazy!
We just finished a complete bathroom reno in our guest bath. It is a small space and I had the towel bars on the back of the door for space saving. I also didn’t want to clutter up the limited wall space. We also had the shower\tub tile run all the way to the ceiling and it look so good, more of a classic style. Enjoy the process, and sharing a bath for a few months.
I have had sliding glass doors on a shower growing up which were fine, until one of them didn’t work. They were stuck open and we’re really heavy to open/close when they worked. Also, we currently have an all glass shower and because it is small, you have to squeegee it after each use so you don’t have water spots when the water dries. Just some things that can result from all glass with showers. I personally wouldn’t choose one but I prefer the ease of removing a curtain and washing it.
I love all of your design ideas except the glass door for the kids. I coordinate home repair for low income homeowners, and glass doors are either great or a DISASTER. One lady loves hers, the other knocks hers off track constantly. Plus, they are not mold and mildew free, as people would think. Caulking and consistent cleaning are very important! I might hold off on that for the kids bath until they are a little older.
Tip #2: If you have a cast iron tub in your master, it may be a bear to remove. They are super heavy, and often wider than your doorways. We had to cut a hole in an exterior wall to get one out once. Your contractor should be able to tell you this though, but cutting holes in walls makes it more expensive than just keeping the tub sometimes!
I also second keeping the curtain in the girls bathroom. If you have a glass door, it does need to be squeegeed after each use or the water spots soap scup will stay. Maybe that will be fun or the girls to do, or it could be a hassle for them. This is just my opinion. I love glass doors, but thought I would mention it.
My kids are a similar age to Mazzy and Harlow and they LOVE to squeegee the glass doors. The 9 year old is the best at it and it’s just part of the shower routine now. We had our bathroom remodelled last summer and the glass door still looks like new. It’s a change to get used to but I totally think you can make it fun.
A big vote for me is for dark grout wherever you can – it stays SO much cleaner than white grout.
I have had a glass door and yes you need to squeegee it, but I don’t think it’s the worst thing (and I think it’s a little fun!)
YES! Do not use white or light grout in the shower/tub. It is impossible to keep clean….even if you do get it sealed.
Exactly! We have a tiled shower with light grout and enclosed glass. We’ve already had to re-grout because of the mildew and its almost impossible to keep thr mildew from the bottom between the tile and glass. We also have to squigy after showering every time to keep water spots and residue off as well.
I think I pinned many of the same things when we gutted and renovated 2 bathrooms last spring. It’s pretty fresh in my memory but we’ve also lived with our choices for awhile. We went classic in both baths – black/white in the kids’ and navy/black/white in the master. I used bright/fun accents with art, rug, etc – especially in the kid’s bath and I think it looks a little retro but clean/modern, fun for kids but not babyish for our guests. My favorite thing: dark grout between white subway tiles…stains don’t show and it looks really sharp. The hubs favorite thing: the HUGE mirrored medicine cabinet we had installed in the master bath. It’s inset between the studs, so it looks flat to the wall but opens up to hold a ton, mirrors inside and out. Good luck!
These look great! 2 tips:
1. we preferred larger tiles – fewer grout lines to clean..
2. the clear glass doors will need to be cleaned daily after shower or else water stains will drive you crazy after a week.
Good Luck!
Look into radiant heating for the bathroom floor. It should come with a programmable timer/thermostat so your floor can be nice and warm before you get up in the morning.
Also I put RainX on my glass shower panels once a month and that keeps the spots to a minimum.
We have drawers in our bathroom instead of a cabinet, and I LOVE them. Seriously so much easier to see everything and organize than a cabinet with shelves. 10/10 recommend!
Also, we had wallpaper in the bathroom, and it ALWAYS peels. So unless you have a fan that really kicks ass, I would say paint is a better option.
You may not want an elevated bowl sink in the girls bathroom – they seem difficult to clean around and under (full disclosure – I’ve never had one)
Cut our a patch of you shower curtain and frame it!
On my glass shower walls and door I have to use a squeegee to remove the excess water after I turn off the water or else it gets spots. If you use a textured, non-see through glass it might be easier to maintain though it won’t have quite the same feel. The squeegee is a little bit of a pain but the 20 seconds it takes me to do it keeps from having to clean it all the time.
I bought your exact white couch and used your photos to inspire a sitting area in my house that I am still inn love with 2 years later. I also discovered that the couch wasn’t wiping clean as well as I wanted and then noticed the tag underneath when I was flipping the cushion that said to machine wash the cushion covers. It works so well! You wash them on cold and hang them to dry and they look fantastic! I have 4 kiddos and everyone thinks my white couch is nuts, but I love it!
Love all of it! Except the glass doors…they are horrendous to clean!
I know there’s a lot of comments about having to squeegee the glass every day, but there are also products out there that help maintainance. For example, we use Method daily shower spray on the glass after turning off the water. It doesn’t need to be rinsed and keeps the glass clean. And then when you do squeegee (we don’t need to every day) it looks even better. And it smells lovely (!!) and doesn’t have harsh chemicals so kids can use it and touch it. I’m sure there are other products as well.
I like the idea of privacy for the girls as they get older and share the bathroom, but you could put a curtain outside of the glass and it wouldn’t even get wet – or is that too crazy?
You should have the curtain made into pillows for this house or the other one!
Haha or cut a piece and frame it! Gotta have it somewhere
I love all your ideas. We have glass doors on daughter’s bathroom and it’s amazing. I also got sick of throwing away the shower curtain liners. The only thing I’d caution is having too much tile in the shower areas. It’s a pain to keep clean and you have to clean and regrout quite a bit.
Love your shower curtain! It made for a great picture back drop. Good luck with the renovation! I’m sure whatever you pick will look fabulous!
Looks lovely! But I also feel the same as a lot of the commenters. I am NOT a fan of glass shower doors. To me it feels too open and no privacy, plus mine just got soooo much mildew! I had to use q-tips and toothpicks to clean the tracks out more often than I cared for. And the glass just always seemed to have soap spots. I finally ripped that sucker out and put in a shower curtain!
Things to watch out for. Glass Showers. You will spend your days cleaning it over and over. I love it, but it really is a pain in the ass. Especially with kids and the soap just seems to go everywhere. Streaks, it looks like the sink after they brush their teeth. Even adults, clean it once. Shower, then you need to clean it again. Think of a bad car wash that left dried water droplets everywhere
I want to hear more about the Sunbrella couch not working out! We have a grayish green microfiber couch that is great vis a vis stains (it looks perfect, but it has had everything under the sun spilled on it), but I would eventually like to have a light beige, non-microfiber upholstered couch. I thought sunbrella options would help make it livable. No? 🙁
Wow, nice. I am also looking for the renovation I am deciding to place anime shower curtain at my kids room, how about the idea let me know thanks..